Restaurant Reinvention: Salmon Piadine

Recreating restaurant is an enjoyable tradition in my household. And I’ll be the first to admit that the first attempt is not always successful. But that’s half the fun. You keep trying till you get it right. And soon, you’ll end up with a dish that’s even better than the original!

Sometimes a restaurant makes is easy by putting the ingredients list right on the menu – you then have to figure out the right quantity of each to make a delicious finished product. Such is the case at Tomatina, a Bay area restaurant. I already shared my recreation of a caprese piadine with chicken a while ago. Today, I’ll shave my favorite — a salmon piadine.

A piadine is defined on their menu as: a unique sandwich on freshly baked original or wheat flatbread and topped with cool salads, ready to fold and eat. This assumes, of course, that one can make a perfectly proportional flatbread that folds neatly into a sandwich. Since mine rarely, if ever, look that perfect, I eat mine with a knife and fork.

Ingredients you’ll need

1 pound of salmon

1 lemon

Capers

Arugula

Red onion

Fennel

1 Zucchini squash

Pizza dough for one large pizza (home-made or store bought)

Pesto (home-made or store bought)

Pantry items

Mayonnaise

Olive oil

Garlic

Salt

Pepper

1. Make the caper aioli

1/4 cup mayonnaise

3 tsp capers, drained and chopped

1 tsp chopped garlic (about 1 large clove)

1 TBSP chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together and set aside. Can be made ahead of time.

2. Make the lemon vinaigrette.

1/4 cup olive oil

1/8 cup freshly squeezed lemon

1 tsp lemon zest

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together and set aside. Can be made ahead of time.

3. Combine salad ingredients

3 cups arugula

1/2 fennel, shaved

1/2 cup red onion, sliced thinly

1/2 zucchini squash, julienned

Combine and set aside until you add the dressing.

4. Cook the salmon

1 pound salmon

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Add the seasonings to the fish and cook for about 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees. Vary cooking time according to thickness of fish. I like my salmon to be slightly pink in the center.

5. Add dressing to salad mixture.

Add the aoili and vinaigrette to the salad in a ratio of 1:2. I used about half of what I made, but you can tailor to your tastes and save the leftovers for another salad.

6. Prepare flatbreads.

Break pizza dough, prepared ahead of time, into 2-3 separate balls. Roll out the dough, prepared ahead, to the size of a dinner plate, creating a thickness that suits your taste. Then place on stove at medium heat, and cook about 1 minute per site. I like to season mine with olive oil, salt and pepper. Once cooked, spread a bit of pesto on top. (You can buy prepared pesto or make your own. I reduce the strength of the pesto by “cutting” it with olive oil.)

7. Assemble.

On top of each pesto-prepared flatbread, add greens and salmon on top. Note that at Tomatina, they use cold salmon broken into bite sized pieces and mixed with the greens. I like mine heated and placed on top when I make at home.

Serving Size: This recipe is enough for 2-3 piadines. When we make it, I create two and have enough salmon and flatbread to feed my little one, too. As great an eater as he is, he does not like dinner salads!